Women Lead the Effort to Legalize Cannabis in California

Reform advocates met in San Francisco last weekend to plot ending the 100-year cannabis prohibition in California. Sponsored by California NORML, the conference started by presenting the history of cannabis prohibition and reform, turned to an analysis of multi-state polling data, and ended discussing the path to the California ballot. Throughout it all, the vast majority of panelists and attendees felt that, with good wording and solid teamwork, a cannabis legalization initiative would succeed in 2016. Leading the discussions were the women of cannabis reform, under the polished guidance of Dale Sky Jones, Chairwoman of Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform (CCPR), Diane Goldstein of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Ellen Komp of Cal NORML, and Amanda Reiman of Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).

Dale Sky Jones is a former corporate trainer, with a background in manufacturing and product research, and is the proud mother of a young son. A child of hippie parents, she rebelled by becoming the “corporate chick,” hiding her occasional cannabis use from all but two close friends. She learned about the medical benefits of cannabis, and the risks of the current prohibition, after accepting a management position at a California medical practice. There, she found it difficult to understand the shifting laws governing medical cannabis and realized that patients were stepping out into a “black hole” after receiving recommendations, with no information about dosage, usage and strains. The physicians she directed were prevented from discussing how to get medical cannabis, under threat of felony imprisonment. It became clear to Jones that cannabis laws needed a major overhaul, so she took the helm as spokesperson for the Proposition 19 campaign.

Polling data presented at the Cal NORML conference showed that moms do not support cannabis law reforms, with the majority of them voting “no” in Colorado, Washington and on Prop 19 in California. But, as Jones points out, “I was the woman I am trying to talk to now. There is nothing stronger then a woman or a mother on a mission.” She intends to get the message out that, “we will have safer communities, if we tax and regulate cannabis.”

Assisting Jones at CCPR is Diane Goldstein, a 21-year veteran police officer and retired Lieutenant from the Redondo Beach Police Department. According to Goldstein, her “experience professionally showed that our policy was a total and abject failure. In an attempt to achieve a rhetorical drug-free America, we have severed the relationship of trust and mutual respect that was once inherent in law enforcement with our communities.”

To build that respect back again, she has joined CCPR as a project manager and Sergeant at Arms. She believes that the significance of CCPR lies in its diversity, with individuals and groups coming together based on “our mainstream view that the national and local cannabis policy is an abject failure.” At CCPR, she will push people forward into action to end cannabis prohibition and create safer communities. With founding members including Alice Huffman, President of the California chapter of the NAACP, Steve Downing, retired LAPD Deputy Chief, Dan Rush of United Food and Commercial Workers, and Antonio Gonzalez, President of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a national Latino public policy and research organization, along with a representatives from a number of drug reform groups, it will take someone of Goldstein’s caliber to keep order within CCPR.

Kyndra Miller, of Cannabusiness Law, will work with Goldstein at CCPR to promote unity and communication. As a member of the Pier 5 Law Offices in San Francisco and as CA director of the NORML Women’s Alliance, it is her goal to “give a loud voice to the women and families that believe that the current drug policies in the United States are hypocritical, destructive and a colossal waste of money.” As a former entertainment lawyer, she can handle ego and legal with equal aplomb. Supported by attorney Lauren Vasquez, of Fired Up Lawyer, who is acting as a “cat herder” for Dale Sky Jones, Miller will lead the effort to draft language and will help coordinate the group’s expansive legal team.

California NORML is playing a large role in the effort to legalize cannabis in California. Ellen Komp, their project manager, organized and directed the San Francisco conference in order to kick-start the campaign. According to Komp, their next push is “exposing the sham that is drug testing.” Cal NORML will reach out employers and workers with safer alternatives to drug testing, which was a key issue of debate during the Proposition 19 campaign. Along with long time Cal NORML Chairman, Dale Gieringer, Komp will also host another conference. This one will be held in Los Angeles, in September of 2014, on the 100th anniversary of the first known marijuana bust in California. Komp, a biochemist turned cannabis historian, feels strongly about cannabis reform, saying, “I don’t just want legalization. I want appreciation for the culture that we are and the contributions we’ve made to society. As we learned with Proposition 215, passing the law is only half the battle. We must fight for acceptance too.”

There are plenty of men involved in the effort to legalize cannabis in California, too. Graham Boyd, counsel to philanthropist Peter B. Lewis, will be helping to design and coordinate the campaign, and Allan Hopper of the ACLU of Northern California will provide essential support. Senator Mark Leno and Representative Tom Ammiano will lead from their positions in the Legislature. Stephen Gutwillig, Deputy Executive Director of Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), stressed at the conference that California is top priority for them, where they plan to work on expanding the number of people that agree with cannabis law reform. In their view, while it is early to write ballot language, the California law should be similar to a microbrew model, supporting small growers and personal cultivation. But, as he said at the Cal NORML conference, “marijuana is not going to legalize itself. It is not going to be easy, and it obviously will not be cheap.”

Dr. Amanda Reiman, PhD., is DPA’s Policy Manager for California and is an expert on cannabis issues. With a masters degree in social work and an interest in community organizing, her plan for the 2016 campaign is to appeal to ambivalent voters, who flipped to “no” in large numbers during the Proposition 19 campaign. She believes that California advocates need to “slow down” and watch the federal shake out in Colorado and Washington, while developing mainstream support for reform. Like most, but not all, advocacy groups in CA, DPA feels that a legalization campaign in 2014 would be premature. She says, “we need to build a strategy and initiative that fits the needs of the complex population of California. This is an area where I think women in the movement are essential. We are better at delivering nuanced messages, and better at reaching those who are reluctant to hear. And, we need women to vote yes to guarantee a win in California in 2016.”

Her colleague at DPA, senior attorney Tamar Todd, pulled out a “Magic Eight Ball” at the Cal NORML conference, which repeatedly answered “better not tell you now” when asked about the results of our next cannabis reform vote. True enough, as there are many decisions to be made, coalitions to be built, and voters to educate before the real outcome can be predicted. But first, advocates need to agree to develop solidarity, and California’s women leadership understands this goal well.

As Dale Sky Jones says, “we will get there with the woman making the difficult relationships easier. Women have been beside the men forever, quietly, but women in the lead will bring a nurturing to the movement. It is woven in the women’s spirit to nurture.”

Diane Goldstein of LEAP would agree. “We truly believe that women have the moral imperative in all our roles to end a destructive war on our communities. With our multi-faceted roles we bring skills such as nurturing, consensus, and team building. We can provide an emotional support system that mend fences within the cannabis movement, as well having the capabilities to reach outside of the movement. This emotional intelligence allows us to bring out the best in all of us.” Rest assured, the future of cannabis reform in California is in good hands with CCPR.

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Smell The Truth is one of the internet's most popular destinations for cannabis-related news and culture. This blog is not written or edited by SFGate or the San Francisco Chronicle. The authors are solely responsible for the content.